An conductor was hit by a car attempting to go around a stopped train on the Sterling secondary this morning on 15 mile road. The conductor was out walking the train when he was hit. Good thing he had all that PPE on. They'll probably still fire him.

I guess he was going out to flag the crossing. I see where the front of the engine is stopped. It looks as if the train engineer stopped his train because he noticed the crossing malfunction. The one detail I hope to see is that the conductor will recover with no long term ill effect.

Crossing malfunction "STOP and flag " normal procedure. Getting hit by a car , not so much. Pretty banged up. Head injury and some broken ribs. Drivers need to start focusing on driving and not anything else. Peoples lives are at stake ! HURRY UP autonomous cars. then you can do what the hell you want to without killing innocent people.

It refers to "People driving distracted" . There are a lot more stupid people behind steering wheels these days. Doing other things , other than driving the vehicle that they are in command of . Other than autonomous vehicles, the BUS would be the way to go for these people. That way they can do whatever they want without being a terror on the road/side walks. Accidents do happen. But far to often they could have been prevented it, if the driver just had their head in the game ( DRIVING a vehicle ! ) VS up their butt .

M.D.Bentley wrote:Crossing malfunction "STOP and flag " normal procedure. Getting hit by a car , not so much. Pretty banged up. Head injury and some broken ribs. Drivers need to start focusing on driving and not anything else. Peoples lives are at stake ! HURRY UP autonomous cars. then you can do what the hell you want to without killing innocent people.

First, I hope he makes a speedy recovery with no long term physical and mental issues related to this accident.

As for the autonomous cars. Absolutely not, unless EVERYONE is driving one.

M.D.Bentley wrote:HURRY UP autonomous cars. then you can do what the hell you want to without killing innocent people.

The autonomous car didn't do any better in Arizona, striking a jay-walking pedestrian. The car saw the pedestrian but did nothing to avoid the accident. (The safety driver was watching streamed TV on their personal device and not monitoring the car's behavior.)

So while you promote autonomous vehicles remember their limitations. And remember to program them to behave correctly around railroads and pedestrians. Make sure that you program that autonomous vehicle to recognize a pedestrian flagging a railroad crossing and control the vehicle appropriately. A flagger is just one of the many situations that human drivers need to learn to handle. Unless one works for a railroad or spend a lot of time at railroads one probably doesn't see a flagger at a railroad crossing very often.

Add in construction zone flaggers (the better ones using "STOP/SLOW" signs that would be recognized by automation). Program the car to travel on the correct side of the road through the flagged area (and not cross to the closed portion of the road). Program the car to recognize a police officer or other person simply using hand signals to stop and direct traffic. Is the state of the art to the point where we can TRUST the automation to do everything right?

Teach the car to not start across the tracks until there is enough room on the far side of the tracks to clear the crossing. And teach it to be predictive so it is not over cautious and causing accidents by stopping unnecessarily. That was the other element in the Arizona death. The system that would have panic braked the car to avoid the accident was disabled because it was over cautious. Autonomous vehicles are not going to help if they don't work correctly.

Autonomous cars are not the "holy grail". I was in Tempe, Arizona (attending a funeral) the same Sunday in March that the Uber autonomous vehicle killed a pedestrian. (No, I did not see the incident. But, it was on every TV channel and in every newspaper on Monday morning.) Unless everyone is in an autonomous vehicle, it is impossible for the autonomous vehicle to be 100 percent accident free. There are too many outside, uncontrolled variables.

The airline industry learned about automation the hard way. Too many accidents have occurred because of autopilot. The airline pilot gets complacent to letting the computer do the work. And, the profession had to adjust.

So it is, too, with the Positive Train Control (PTC). PTC is not going to stop all accidents. Proof of this fact can be seen in the several accidents that have occurred WITH PTC. (Washington Metro two-train collission in DC; Chicago CTA train failing to stop at end of track at Ohare; Amtrak train that went at full speed into a siding at Niles; etc.) Even PTC has its failings.

Autonomous cars, Autopilot, and PTC... they all MAY help make basic situations somewhat safer... but when they do have an accident, it will be bigger. Welcome to the 21st century!

While I was jogging on the bike path a young man was walking toward me looking at his cell phone and I had get his attention so he wouldn't walk into me. It's getting that stupid out there.

hoborich wrote:Getting pretty scary out there. Too many people looking down at something while driving. And it ain't just kids!

PatC created a monster, 'cause nobody wants to see Don Simon no more they want AARR I'm chopped liver, well if you want AARR this is what I'll give ya, bad humor mixed with irrelevant info that'll make you roll your eyes quicker than a ~Z~ banhammer...